Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The President of the High Court, Mr. Justice Peter Kelly, said that one had to be either very rich or very poor to get to the courts to get justice. This could apply to many people in the SME sector too. I am sure the Central Bank would agree that everybody should have a good and well-funded pension. Members of the Oireachtas recently received a lot of mail from staff of Irish Life, where the defined benefit pension will be wound up. The pension has €1.3 billion in assets and has €240 million accumulated in savings. It is a well-funded pension. They feel that, if their defined benefit pension comes to an end, this will escalate to other defined benefit pension schemes and that will leave people with just the State pension if that happens. It would be a shock to the system. It is extraordinary, when one thinks that Irish Life's business is selling pensions to people, that it will bring to an end its own staff's defined benefit pension. How does the Central Bank feel about it? Is there anything that the Central Bank can do about this? Have the witnesses any thoughts on it?